Tuesday, September 1, 2009

While speaking at the CIA this past April, Pres. Obama said:

There is nothing more important than protecting the identities of CIA officers. So I need everybody to be clear: We will protect your identities and your security as you vigorously pursue your missions.

This was brought on by the Valerie Plame incident, and it seemed like the President was mending fences with the CIA while making perfect sense about the importance of keeping CIA identities secret.WRONG!!!!!!It now appears that with the upcomming Dept. of Justice investigation, a whole lot of names of CIA personnel are going to become public.Last year, for instance, the New York Times published the name of a CIA officer who interrogated 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. This was despite the protests of the officer and the CIA that to identify him would "put him at risk of retaliation from terrorists or harassment from critics of the agency," Where was the uproar from the privacy advocates??Last Friday, the Washington Post reported that the Justice Department is looking into allegations that military defense attorneys for top al Qaeda detainees had shown their clients photographs of CIA officers and contractors. The pictures, some of which were "taken surreptitiously outside [the CIA officers'] homes," were gathered by an outfit called the John Adams Project. The Project seeks to identify the interrogators to serve as witnesses if and when their clients are tried in federal court or by military commissions. "We are confident that no laws or regulations have been broken," ACLU executive director Anthony Romero told the Post.WHAT!!!!!! No laws or regulations were broken? Go ask Scooter Libby.Please Mr. President, go ahead and start investigating and prosecuting folks at the CIA for only doing their job of keeping Americans safe. That should play well in Peoria.